WHITTIER – After 75 years in the community, the Rio Hondo Symphony finally has a place to call its own.

General Manager Sue Walker, along with other symphony staffers, organizers and volunteers, has moved into a new office at 7740 Painter Ave., Whittier.

Work began in March, and a ribbon cutting will take place Tuesday.

“It’s given us several advantages,” Walker said of the new space.

The new office will provide a space for board meetings and administrative work while also serving as a launch pad for what Walker expects will be a time of expansion for the symphony.

The Rio Hondo Orchestra was founded as the Whittier College-Community Orchestra in 1932.

Whittier College violin teacher Ruth Haroldson organized a group of musicians during the Great Depression. For its first concert, the orchestra performed at the Ford Theatre before an audience of about 25 people. Admission was 10 cents per person.

At first, the orchestra performed sporadically, undergoing name changes and gaining musicians and audiences.

“It was in 1964 that it had finally grown more, when it changed its name to the Rio Hondo Symphony,” Publicity Manager Dorothea Cummings said.

Now, the Rio Hondo Symphony performs four annual free concerts each season at the Vic Lopez Auditorium at Whittier High School. It also performs an annual Children’s Concert, occasional “Pops” concerts, which feature film music and light opera, and gives back by sponsoring music education programs in schools around the area.

The symphony also sponsors annual Young Artists contests, giving musicians in their teens and 20s the opportunity to earn small cash prizes and perform with the orchestra.

This year, the symphony pulled in about $223,000 for its operating budget. The money comes from Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe’s office, donations from local cities, grant money, fundraisers and membership drives.

That money pays for the musicians, a five-person support staff, rent for the auditorium, program printing and other expenses.

“It costs a lot to put on four free concerts a year,” Walker said.

The budget and the organization’s goals have grown significantly over the past 10 years, Walker said, since the symphony volunteers realized they were “the best-kept secret in Whittier.”

After learning that many in the community would be open to donating to the symphony or attending performances or support fundraising activities, they began to get the word out, sending more press releases and hosting more events.

Their budget nearly tripled in 10 years, growing from about $70,000 to $80,000 per year to current numbers.

Now change is on the way for the symphony.

This year, conductor Wayne Reinecke will retire after more than 20 years with the group. Plans to replace him with a permanent director are ongoing. For now, though, four different conductors will “audition” in the next season, which will begin in September.

“There were so many outstanding applicants that they have narrowed it down to four,” she said. “They really just couldn’t decide. So then each one will plan and conduct one of the four concerts.”

According to Walker, there are also plans to expand educational programs for local students. The symphony currently sponsors a Music Enrichment Program in schools which reaches 15,000 students in grades three through five in the greater Whittier area.

“We would really like to expand our education program, and we would also like to expand our city funding,” Walker said.

Money for children’s programming and to support the concerts that residents from surrounding cities attend is necessary for expansion, and Walker said she knows tight budgets statewide may make expansion difficult.

“Obviously, this year will not be the year,” she said. “But these are long-term goals.”

The size of the orchestra itself does not expand year by year, but members say the professionalism of musicians who participate is steadily increasing.

Orchestra veteran LouAnn Barth said she joined the group as a high school student. Now an orchestra manager who helps hire players, she believes the quality of music offered will continue to rise.

“We’ll continue basically in the same trajectory,” she said. “Every new conductor has his or her own vision, so there can be modifications that happen.” airan.scruby@sgvn.com

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